Sep 22, 2020

🧠 Proof of Learning 21: Wedding gifts, authenticity, etc

By Jamie Sutton • Issue #21 • View online

Hello. I’m still alive.

I did nerdy things this week, like remapping my caps lock key and learning new keyboard shortcuts.

Here’s what I’ve thought about this past week:

💭 On my mind

🤵 Wedding gifts. I went to my first COVID-19 wedding recently. There were about 50 people and new rules included things like “don’t clank your glasses to cheers” and “dance in your bubble”. What happens to the speeches after a wedding? I’ve learned there is wedding vow art, but is anybody preserving the stories that are shared?
👦 Putting a premium on authenticity. Authenticity might be the character trait I find most attractive in a friendship. Being around someone who is self-aware, honest with how they feel, and immune to the pull to ‘play it cool’ is so enjoyable. It’s as if they’re more present with themselves and less involved with trying to be something.
💪 Moving makes it easier to move. I notice a big difference in energy levels on days I’m more active in terms of exercise versus days I’m lazy. I actually find myself with more energy after working out. There’s a lesson about momentum somewhere in here.

📚 Books of the week

📗 Finished: Tiny MBA by Alex Hillman. A thought provoking 30-minute read formatted like a tweet storm, but in easier-to-read book form with much more spacing and footnotes.

I’m generally skeptical of business books because they tend to be motivation porn, biographies (which can be good), or self-help. This book is none of the above. Easy recommendation from me.

Here are a couple of my highlights from the book:

Audience building should really just be called “earning trust at scale.” Cuz that’s what it is.

If done well, teaching and marketing can be nearly indistinguishable from each other.

Brand can be a valuable business, but creating a brand is not a first step for starting a business. It’s not even one of the first 200 steps.

📙 Reading: Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson. Excited to be half-way through this one. If you’re curious, if you liked the Shane Parrish/Naval interview—maybe my favorite podcast of all time—you will like this.

A lot of that interview is in this book. I’m making a lot of connections between what Seth Godin said in Linchpin and what Naval says. I love both of their work, so it’s cool to make those connections.

👋 See you next Tuesday!

Thanks for reading.

Here’s a quote from a Tim Urban article about thinking like Elon Musk:

Being trapped in your history means you don’t know how to change, you’ve forgotten how to innovate, and you’re stuck in the identity box the world has put you in.

Did you enjoy this issue?

By Jamie Sutton

Bite-sized ideas for curious minds, every Tuesday.

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